Two years ago...
"Why?" Alex asked in horror.
"'Cos I said so!" her father boomed, causing Ned and Barto to flinch.
"We dinna get caught!"
"Ye almost did!" her father exclaimed. "That bloody Guard almost caught ye!"
Alex glared at her cousins. Both looked away and started to turn.
"Yer not goin' out of Meriwether until I say so," her father said with finality.
Alex stomped her foot and walked out of the cottage.
"Nae goin' out, d'ye hear me?" her father cried after her.
"Aye! I'll rot te death in this damned place!" she shouted over her shoulder.
"That bleedin' Guard's still lookin' fer ye! Yer uncles said so!"
"Then maybe I'll let 'im catch me fer good!"
*****
"This is everything?" Ralph asked no one in particular, hands on his hips as he studied the carriage before him.
"It is everything we can manage to haul," Levi murmured beside him.
"This is bloody stupid," Nicholas said, shaking his head. "This is the dumbest thing I have ever witnessed you do, brother." Aabha, Sophia's dog, made a sound beside his brother's leg. Mrs. Brigid Beagle, the black cat, meowed beside Aabha. It seemed both animals were in agreement to Nicholas' statement.
"Suicide," Maxwell said from where he leaned against the carriage door.
Ralph ignored them. "This is the only way."
"There are tons of ways, you idiot!" Levi, Nicholas and Maxwell exclaimed in unison.
"What is happening?" Ysabella's voice asked from somewhere above them.
The brothers looked up to see the twins leaning out one of the windows of the second landing.
"Nothing!" they all chorused.
"Why is that posh chest on the carriage roof?" Emma asked.
"Because it deserves to be flaunted!" Ralph cried back, irate.
"That belonged to your father, dear!" their mother's voice shouted from the other window.
Ralph groaned.
"And what is that inside the carriage?" the woman asked.
"The portmanteau father gave you, Mother!" Nicholas replied. "The one embossed with gold!"
"Ask Ralph what is inside the bloody portmanteau!" Levi added.
"Oh dear Lord, what are you boys up to?" was their mother's near-hysterical response.
"Something stupid," Benedict wryly replied from the doorway of the open front door. Beside him stood his three-year-old daughter, Ayah, who was looking at everyone with her curious green eyes.
"What do we have here?" Wakefield asked, joining Benedict and his daughter at the doorway. Before anyone could reply, Cole joined the crowd that was gathering in the driveway of the Everard mansion.
"Meg says to be careful, Ralph," Cole said. "And I will not be representing any of you should things go awry and you end up in the courts."
"Can we come with you?" Fiona asked.
YOU ARE READING
Masterful Trickery
Historical FictionTHE BANDIT She merely meant to steal and get away with it. She did not mean to find a dying woman and be chased for it. She merely meant to help. She did not mean to be dressed in a gown and be a target for murder. THE GUARD He was tasked to chase...
